Electrode manufacturing

ABSTRACT

A method for manufacturing electrodes includes mixing a powder to form a homogenous blend, injecting a lubricant into the homogenous blend to form a dough, kneading the dough to form a fibrillated dough, and outputting segments of the fibrillated dough. The method also includes processing the segments into a continuous plaque, drying the continuous plaque to form an active material sheet, laminating portions of the active material sheet to a current collector substrate to form an electrode blank, and sectioning the electrode blank into electrodes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.17/520,316, filed Nov. 5, 2021, which is a continuation of applicationSer. No. 17/319,716, filed May 13, 2021, the contents of each of whichare incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to the manufacturing of battery components.

BACKGROUND

Electrodes are typically electrical conductors that contact non-metalliccircuit parts. Batteries can include one or more electrodes tofacilitate proper operation.

SUMMARY

In some examples, a method for manufacturing electrodes includes mixinga powder to form a homogenous blend, injecting a lubricant into thehomogenous blend to form a dough, kneading the dough to form afibrillated dough, and outputting segments of the fibrillated dough. Themethod also includes calendering the segments to a target thickness toform discrete plaques, folding the discrete plaques to form discretefolded plaques, calendering the discrete folded plaques to form discretehomogenous plaques, stacking the discrete homogenous plaques to form acontinuous overlapping chain, and calendering the continuous overlappingchain to form a continuous plaque. The method also includes drying thecontinuous plaque to form an active material sheet, laminating portionsof the active material sheet to a current collector substrate to form anelectrode blank, and sectioning the electrode blank into electrodes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of electrode manufacturing operations.

FIGS. 2-4 are block diagrams of processing arrangements formanufacturing electrodes.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a V-blender.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a mixer, heater, and kneader.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a calender.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a dryer.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a laminator.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a cutter.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a conveyor, robot, and laminating rollmill arrangement.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a winder/unwinder.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a folder.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of portions of an electrode manufacturingsystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments are described herein. It is to be understood, however, thatthe disclosed embodiments are merely examples and other embodiments maytake various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily toscale. Some features could be exaggerated or minimized to show detailsof particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functionaldetails disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, butmerely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art.

Various features illustrated and described with reference to any one ofthe figures may be combined with features illustrated in one or moreother figures to produce embodiments that are not explicitly illustratedor described. The combinations of features illustrated providerepresentative embodiments for typical applications. Variouscombinations and modifications of the features consistent with theteachings of this disclosure, however, could be desired for particularapplications or implementations.

Processes for making zinc anodes on a large scale are contemplatedherein. Generally speaking, anode powder may initially be mixed in ablender and then sent to a fibrillation machine and laminating/cuttingmachine. The fibrillation machine may include a kneader/extruder thatmixes the anode powder with mineral spirits, fibrillates it, andextrudes it into a continuous ribbon. This ribbon may then becontinuously fed into a calender with a single set of calender rolls ora series of sets of calender rolls to reach the desired thickness. Thecontinuously calendered plaque may then be continuously dried in an ovenand finally rolled up on a reel in a rewinder.

In one example, premixed anode powder, including combinations of calciumzincate, metallic zinc, zinc oxide, nucleation additives (e.g., bismuth,cadmium, lead, mercury, tin, and zinc) and hydrogen suppressingadditives (e.g., bismuth, cadmium, indium, lead, mercury, tin, andzinc), absorbent additives, and/or zinc stabilization additives, isadded to a hopper and fed into an extruder. A lubricant is added throughan injection port. The material in the extruder is then heated toapproximately 50° C. The extruder also kneads the material to fibrillateit. Using a split annular die, the material is extruded as a ribbon. Theribbon exiting the kneader/extruder is fed directly into a calender withone or more sets of rolls to form a continuous plaque of the desiredthickness and width. After calendering, the continuous plaque is sentthrough a drying oven to remove the lubricant, and wound onto a roll ata rewind station. Upon completion of the run, the roll of activematerial sheet is transferred to a laminating/cutting machine for finalprocessing.

The laminating/cutting machine includes three de-reelers that uncoil tworolls of anode plaque and one roll of perforated copper substrate withtabs. The plaque is fed into another calender with the copper substratein-between to laminate them together. After the laminating calender,continuously pressed electrode blanks are cut into individual zincnegative electrodes with a rotatory cutter and then put onto a shinglingconveyor for operator removal.

The above is more generally described in FIG. 1. At operation 10, powder(e.g., zinc oxide, calcium zincate, metallic zinc, nucleation andhydrogen suppressing additives, absorbent additives, and/or zincstabilization additives) and polytetrafluoroethylene are mixed to form ahomogenous blend. At operation 12, the homogeneous blend is injectedwith lubricant (e.g., butanol, ethanol, mineral spirits, or xylene) toform a dough. At operation 14, the dough is kneaded to form afibrillated dough. At operation 16, the dough is extruded through a dyeto form a ribbon. At operation 18, the ribbon is calendered to a targetthickness to form a plaque. At operation 20, the plaque is dried to forman active material sheet. At operation 22, portions of the activematerial sheet are laminated to a current collector substrate includinga tab such that the current collector substrate is sandwiched betweenthe portions to form an electrode blank. And at operation 24, theelectrode blank is sectioned into zinc negative electrodes. Some or allof these operations may be performed in continuous fashion. As a result,the plaque and/or ribbon may be continuous. Also, heat may be applied toany of the homogenous blend, dough, or fibrillated dough.

Variations on the above theme are also contemplated. Referring to FIG.2, stations are arranged to perform at least some of the operationsdescribed above. Intermediate stations between those shown may beomitted for purposes of clarity. A V-blender 26, extruder 28, rollmill/calender 30, dryer 32, and rewinder 34 are arranged in a sequentialprocessing stream 36. Anode powder and polytetrafluoroethylene areinputs to the sequential processing stream 36, and a roll of activematerial sheet is the output.

Unwinders 38, 40, 42, a roll mill laminator 44, and rotary cutter 46 arearranged in a sequential processing stream 48. The unwinders 38, 40, 42are in parallel. Inputs to the sequential processing stream 48 are rollsof active material sheets (for the unwinders 38, 40) and a roll ofcurrent collector material (for the unwinder 42), and zinc negativeelectrodes are the output.

Referring to FIG. 3, V-blenders 50, extruders 52, roll mills/calenders54, and dryers 56 are arranged in parallel sequential processing streams58. Unwinder 60, roll mill/calender 62, and rotary cutter 64 arearranged in a sequential processing stream 66. Powder andpolytetrafluoroethylene are inputs to the parallel sequential processingstreams 58. A roll of current collector material is input to thesequential processing stream 66. Outputs from the parallel sequentialprocessing streams 58 are also input to the roll mill/calender 62 of thesequential processing screen 66. Outputs of the parallel sequentialprocessing stream 66 are zinc negative electrodes.

Referring to FIG. 4, a V-blender 68, extruder 70, roll mill/calender 72,dryer 74, and rotary cutter 76 are arranged in a sequential processingstream 78. Unwinder 80 and rotary cutter 82 are arranged in a sequentialprocessing stream 84. And, pick and place robot 86 and roll milllaminator 88 are arranged in a sequential processing stream 90. Powderand polytetrafluoroethylene are inputs to the sequential processingstream 78. A roll of current collector material is input to thesequential processing stream 84. Outputs from the sequential processingstreams 78, 84 are inputs to the sequential processing stream 90. Zincnegative electrodes are the output from the sequential processing stream90.

Referring to FIG. 5, V-Blender 92 includes a blender 94 mounted on astand 96. Powder and polytetrafluorethylene are added to the blender 94.Homogenous blend results.

Referring to FIG. 6, apparatus 98 includes a hopper 100, injection port102, mixer 104, heater 106, kneader 108, die 110, and motor 112. Thehopper 100 and injection port 102 allow materials, such as thehomogenous blend and lubricant respectively, to be added to the mixer104 and heater 106 respectively. The mixer 104 and kneader 108 aredriven by the motor 112. The kneader forces the material through the die110 to form ribbon.

Referring to FIG. 7, calender 114 includes a pair of rollers 116 thatroll the ribbon to decrease its thickness, resulting in plaque.

Referring to FIG. 8, dryer 118 includes conveyor 120, entrance 122, exit124, inlet port 126, fan 128, motor blower 130, heater 132, and exhaustport 134. Plaque is provided to the dryer 118 via the entrance 122. Airfrom the inlet port 126 is directed through the conveyor 120 and overthe material thereon to the exhaust port 134 by operation of the fan 128and motor blower 130. The heater 132 heats the air to speed the dryingprocess. Active material sheet exits the dryer 118 via the exit 124.

Referring to FIG. 9, laminator 136 includes rolls 138. A currentcollector sheet and active material sheets are laminated together viaoperation of the rolls 138 to form electrode blank.

Referring to FIG. 10, cutter 140 includes shaft 142, cylinder 144,blades 146, and conveyor 148. The cylinder 144 is mounted on the shaft142. The blades 146 are mounted around the cylinder 144. Rotation of theshaft 142 causes the blades 146 to section the electrode blank as it isfed thereto by the conveyor 148.

Referring to FIG. 11, apparatus 150 includes conveyors 152, 154, 156,pick and place robot 158, conveyor 160, and laminating roll mill 162.The conveyors 152, 156 carry cut active material sheet preforms to thepick and place robot 158. The conveyor 154 carries cut current collectorsubstrates with tabs to the pick and place robot 158. The pick and placerobot 158 assembles the cut active material sheets and cut currentcollector substrates such that each cut current collector substrate issandwiched between a pair of active material sheets. The pick and placerobot 158 places these arrangements on the conveyor 160 for delivery toand through the laminating roll mill 162, which laminates thearrangements together—resulting in zinc negative electrodes.

Referring to FIG. 12, winder/unwinder 164 includes a roll 166, dancerarm 168, and various guide rollers 170. Materials, such as thosecontemplated herein, may be wound to or unwound from the winder/unwinder164 depending on its direction of rotation.

In certain circumstances, a single active material sheet may be foldedaround a current collector substrate prior to lamination. Referring toFIG. 13, a folder 172 includes a conveyor 174 and paddles 176. Theconveyor 174 carries a single wide active material sheet with a narrowercurrent collector substrate thereon. The paddles 176 are spaced suchthat portions of the active material sheet on opposite sides of thecurrent collector substrate ride up the paddles 176 and fold overopposite edges of the current collector substrate and overlap, encasingthe current collector substrate therein. Other folding techniques,however, are also possible.

Referring to FIG. 14, an extruder 178 and a plurality of processingstages 180, 182, 184, 186, 188 are arranged in a sequential processingstream 190. The processing stage 180 includes calender rollers 194,oscillating conveyor belt 196, and conveyor 198. The processing stage182 includes calender rollers 200, conveyor 202, oscillating conveyorbelt 204, and conveyor 206. The processing stage 184 includes calenderrollers 208, conveyor 210, oscillating conveyor belt 212, and conveyor214. The processing stage 186 includes calender rollers 216, shinglingconveyor 218, and conveyor 220. The processing stage 188 includescalender rollers 222 and conveyor 224.

The extruder 178 is arranged to receive and mix powder to form ahomogenous blend, inject lubricant into the homogenous blend to form adough, knead the dough to form a fibrillated dough, and segment thefibrillated dough via a segmenting conveyor. In some examples, theextruder 178 extrudes the fibrillated dough through a die to form a ropeand the rope is cut by a cutter to form the segments. The segments offibrillated dough are input to the processing stage 180.

The calender rollers 194 calender the segments to a target thickness toform discrete plaques. The oscillating conveyor belt 196 folds thediscrete plaques, and then rotates them 90° in this example, to formdiscrete folded plaques. The discrete folded plaques are transported tothe processing stage 182 via the conveyor 198.

The calender rollers 200 calender the discrete folded plaques, which arethen transported to the oscillating conveyor belt 204 via the conveyor202. The oscillating conveyor belt 204 folds the discrete folded plaquesagain, which are then transported to the processing stage 184 via theconveyor 206.

The processing stage 184 repeats the operations associated with theprocessing stage 182 before delivering the discrete folded plaques toprocessing stage 186.

The calender rollers 216 calender the discrete folded plaques to formdiscrete homogenous plaques. The shingling conveyor 218 stacks thehomogenous plaques to form a continuous overlapping chain, which is thentransported to the processing stage 188 via the conveyor 220.

The calender rollers 222 calender the continuous overlapping chain toform a continuous plaque, which is then transported to a dryer, alaminating machine, and a cutting machine for subsequent processing asdescribed above.

The algorithms, methods, or processes disclosed herein can bedeliverable to or implemented by a computer, controller, or processingdevice, which can include any dedicated electronic control unit orprogrammable electronic control unit. Similarly, the algorithms,methods, or processes can be stored as data and instructions executableby a computer or controller in many forms including, but not limited to,information permanently stored on non-writable storage media such asread only memory devices and information alterably stored on writeablestorage media such as compact discs, random access memory devices, orother magnetic and optical media. The algorithms, methods, or processescan also be implemented in software executable objects. Alternatively,the algorithms, methods, or processes can be embodied in whole or inpart using suitable hardware components, such as application specificintegrated circuits, field-programmable gate arrays, state machines, orother hardware components or devices, or a combination of firmware,hardware, and software components.

While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended thatthese embodiments describe all possible forms encompassed by the claims.

The words used in the specification are words of description rather thanlimitation, and it is understood that various changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Aspreviously described, the features of various embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention that may not beexplicitly described or illustrated. While various embodiments couldhave been described as providing advantages or being preferred overother embodiments or prior art implementations with respect to one ormore desired characteristics, those of ordinary skill in the artrecognize that one or more features or characteristics may becompromised to achieve desired overall system attributes, which dependon the specific application and implementation. These attributes mayinclude, but are not limited to cost, strength, durability, life cyclecost, marketability, appearance, packaging, size, serviceability,weight, manufacturability, ease of assembly, etc. As such, embodimentsdescribed as less desirable than other embodiments or prior artimplementations with respect to one or more characteristics are notoutside the scope of the disclosure and may be desirable for particularapplications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for manufacturing electrodes,comprising: by an extruder configured to receive powder and outputsegments of fibrillated dough, mixing the powder to form a homogenousblend, injecting a lubricant into the homogenous blend to form a dough,and kneading the dough to form the fibrillated dough, by calenderrollers, calendering the segments to a target thickness to form discreteplaques; by an oscillating conveyor belt, folding the discrete plaquesto form discrete folded plaques; by second calender rollers, calenderingthe discrete folded plaques to form discrete homogenous plaques; by ashingling conveyor, stacking the discrete homogenous plaques to form acontinuous overlapping chain; by third calender rollers, calendering thecontinuous overlapping chain to form a continuous plaque; by a dryer,drying the continuous plaque to form an active material sheet, whereinthe overlapping chain, continuous plaque, and active material sheetdefine a continuum having a chain portion, a plaque portion, and anactive material sheet portion; by a laminating machine, laminatingportions of the active material sheet to a current collector substratesuch that the current collector substrate is sandwiched between theportions to form an electrode blank; and by a cutting machine,sectioning the electrode blank into electrodes.
 2. The method of claim 1further comprising, by a folder, folding the active material sheetaround the current collector substrate.
 3. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising, by a folder, folding the active material sheet aroundopposite edges of the current collector substrate such that oppositeedges of the active material sheet overlap.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the current collector substrate includes a tab.
 5. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising, by a heater, heating the homogenous blend,dough, or fibrillated dough.
 6. The method of claim 1, by the extruder,extruding the fibrillated dough through a die to form a rope.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, by a cutter, cutting the rope to form the segments.8. The method of claim 1, by the oscillating conveyor belt, rotating thediscrete folded plaques 90°.